ITV

Tag: Zeel

  • Zee TV goes the edutainment way with Jodha Akbar

    Zee TV goes the edutainment way with Jodha Akbar

    MUMBAI: Whether it is being the first satellite television in India in 1992, or introducing non-fiction formats of singing and dance talent hunt shows that set the trend for competition to follow or producing fiction shows that address social issues in a poignant manner and drive societal change, Zee TV has been a pioneer in the Hindi GEC space.

     

    In the age of ‘on-the-go content consumption’, Zee TV has been carving a distinct niche for itself in the digital space through a slew of initiatives across its different shows over the last 5 years. Whether it is through Facebook and smartphone apps, augmented reality consoles at malls or innovations in the voting mechanism of its reality shows, Zee TV continues to be at the helm of innovation in the digital space too.

     

    Being the most widely followed and universally loved historical saga on Indian Television, Zee TV’s No. 1 showJodha Akbar has won the hearts of its viewers across India. With an unparalleled rating of 11019 TVTs last week, the show is the biggest historical ever on Indian television. Now, Zee TV takes the leadership initiative yet again and is all set to make history go digital in making its popular historical saga accessible to viewers and fans as a first-of-its-kind e-book and a mobile game.

     

    The digital rendition of India’s history opens up an exciting avenue for children who shy away from their History text-books … why just kids? How many of us adults remember the broad chapters of Indian history after having gone through the grind at school? Ensuring that its readers stay glued to it once they start, Jodha Akbar’s e-book titled‘The Zee TV Mughal Empire E-Book’ presents historical facts and figures through vibrant word pictures, an arresting narration and illustrations that entertain while educating. Starting from the times of Babar and spanning across various centuries, the e-book covers the glorious reign of Shehenshah Akbar right up to Prince Shahjahan. This entire saga of the Mughal reign in India is brought alive through this e-book.

     

    Comprising 6 mini-games, the Jodha-Akbar game has various fun, exciting elements all packed together, making it a must-have app on your phone. Challenge your knowledge about the Mughal Empire through a quiz game – The Grand Entry. Test your reflexes as you race along the battle field combating the enemy in ‘The Ride of your Life’ and ‘The Battle Royale’. ‘Fort Quest’ is a game that gives you a chance to step into the shoes of the great warrior Akbar and conquer the fort. With each threshold crossed in points your rank increases in the Mughal Army from ‘Mansabdar’ to a ‘Wazir’ to a ‘Jawaan’ and finally cross a score of 1 lac points to gain the title of the ‘Mughal Baadshah’ and unlock a secret game ‘The Nine Jewels’!

     

    Talking about launching the game and e-book, Akash Chawla – Head, Marketing – National Channels , ZEEL said, “Zee TV, has been at the forefront in the GEC space with its initiatives in the digital domain over the past 5 years. At a time when ‘on-demand’ and ‘on the go’ entertainment is the order of the day, we have been successful in providing our viewers with both, on-air as well as digital content that has kept them engrossed and engaged. While the innovative e-book packs in it the entire history of the Mughal Empire through vibrant pictorial depictions and a crisp narration, the game will test your knowledge of the Mughal era, ability to think like a warrior and transport you into the world of Jodha Akbar. While entertaining the masses with our on-air content remains our mainstay, we have gone the edutainment way while creating a digital footprint with Jodha Akbar.”

     

    Available now on Online at http://www.zeetv.com/jodha-akbar/ and on Android platforms as the ‘Jodha Akbar Game’ and ‘‘The Zee TV Mughal Empire E-Book’, the game and e-book will be available soon on the IOS platform as well. Even as the show’s popularity continues to soar on the tube, the game and e-book will get viewers of the show to experience the world of Jodha Akbar like never before.

     

    Do not miss Jodha Akbar, Every Monday – Friday at 8:00 PM, Only on Zee TV!

  • Zee TV offers free mobile recharge to audience in return for DID votes

    Zee TV offers free mobile recharge to audience in return for DID votes

    MUMBAI: Not very long ago, the television audience were charged when they voted for their favourite contestants on a reality show, then it was made free in order to get more audience in to voting, now the audience are set to get returns too when they vote.

    In an interesting campaign for its reality show Dance India Dance season 4 that is about to enter an exciting leg with the Top 10 contestants battling it out for the much coveted ‘sunehri taqdeer ki topi’, Zee TV has gone one step further and joined hands with FreeCharge.com and would be ‘freecharging’ the phones of all those who give a missed call to vote for their favorite contestants. Last year, the channel to make votes cost free had come up with the idea of “missed calls for vote”, this time its target seems to be to lure more viewers to the show.

    The voting phase will begin on Sunday, 22 December and audiences will have as much power to vote for their favorite contestants as the judges on the show. 

    The mechanism for voting is simple – on placing a missed call to vote for their favorite contestant, the viewer will receive a promo code. The voter can then log on to www.freecharge.com and get free talk time worth Rs 10 on a minimum recharge of Rs 20 with the use of the promo code. The consumer will get only one promo code per week which means that they can vote only once per week for their favourite contestant. However, they can cast their vote for all contestants but receive only one promo code.

    Talking about the initiative, ZEEL marketing head national channels Akash Chawla said, “Voting is an integral part of any reality show. We made voting free last year by way of the ‘Missed-Call Voting’ mechanism. We received an overwhelming response in the form of record-breaking vote counts from our viewers. With this initiative of ‘Freecharging’ our voters’ phones, the idea was to take one step forward and gratify our viewers for sharing their valuable vote with us and helping us in our journey of identifying India’s biggest dancing star. The mechanism is effective as a consumer is allowed to vote only once for their favorite contestant each week through their registered number…thereby, not allowing any duplication of votes.  Freecharging will prove to be a fair mechanism to identify a winner based on public opinion as well as the judge’s scores.”

     

  • ZEEL expands to Indonesia, launches Zee Bioskop

    ZEEL expands to Indonesia, launches Zee Bioskop

    MUMBAI: Of late, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) has been making headlines for its expansion plans the world over. It isn’t just taking the existing channels from India to the international market but is also coming up with new channels to cater to the local people of the countries they want to reach out to. In the present case, they have done just that.

     

    In order to expand in the south East Asia market, it has launched a movie channel in Indonesia, aptly titled Zee Bioskop (Bioskop means cinema in Bahasa, the local language of the country). The last time Zee introduced a channel in this region was five years ago – Zee Variasi in Malaysia, again a local Bollywood movie channel.

     

    Zee Bioskop, which has been launched today, is currently available only on Aora TV as a pay channel and is beaming off satellite Measat 3a. With the tagline – ‘Bollywood Banget’, which means ‘bollywood excessively’, the channel will showcase the best of Bollywood movies dubbed in Bahasa Indonesian.

     

    An official announcement about the launch will be made in January in Jakarta, the capital, where the office of Zee Bioskop is located. As of now, the officials are working on increasing the distribution of the channel.

     

    Since Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country with not too many movie theatres showing Bollywood movies, the company is trying to cash in on the situation. “Our focused study group showed that Indonesians wanted to watch Bollywood movies and with Bioskop we are targeting the local audience and not the Indians in Indonesia,” says a highly placed source from Zee.

     

    Bioskop will air comedy, action, thriller, drama and romantic movies. Activities on Facebook and Twitter have already started to promote the channel. “This initiative is going to make not just Zee but also Bollywood movies popular in the Indonesian market,” says the source.

     

    Movies like Delhi 6, Shaitan, Aa Dekhen Zara, Oh My God, Vivaah, Love Story 2050 etc are in the current line-up. The channel will come under the APac area and will be headed by Asia-Pacific business head Sushruta Samanta. There are other Zee channels already present in the region since many years.

  • &pictures beats Movies OK on the digital platform

    &pictures beats Movies OK on the digital platform

    MUMBAI: The promise of &pictures being India’s first interactive Hindi movie channel is strengthened with the unique strategy adopted for the premiere of Chennai Express. The Chennai Express mania refuses to die garnering a staggering 5949 TVTs and propelled the channel to zoom ahead of competition. The Week 47 data issued by TAM reveals the following key highlights:-

    &pictures zooms past competition with 112609 GVTs on CS4+, HSM levels

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    On the digital platform, &pictures has beaten Movies OK garnering 80129 GVTs

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    Chennai Express garners higher Time Spent than that of Boss on Colors


    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    &pictures garners highest Time Spent in the Hindi Movie genre.

    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    Chennai Express on &pictures also zips past popular primetime GEC shows like Big Boss, Nach Baliye, CID, KBC, Crime patrol Comedy Nights with Kapil


    Source: TAM, wk 47, Cs4+, HSM

    The channel had lined up an extensive and innovative marketing campaign including TV, Radio, Print, Outdoor, OOH and Cable for this big ticket premiere that aired on November 23rd. Putting across a differentiated digital strategy helped the channel touch the pulse of the youth through Facebook, Twitter and the blogging community.

    The initiative of sending a reminder calls in Shah Rukh Khan’s Voice received a record breaking 153357 unique callers. Selecting four IndiBloggers to relive the journey that SRK and Deepika Padukone had done in the film is clearly a case of achieving success through customer-driven marketing innovation. The bloggers recreated the entire Chennai Express journey which engaged the audiences online. The same was supported by @AndPicturesIN to drive more conversations around the movie premiere. The activation which began on 18th November had four IndiBloggers (Karishma Rawat, Nandini Deka, Arvind Passey & Ramit Narang) travel via Chennai Express train from Mumbai to Rameshwaram. It proved to be an effective medium of getting the audience engaged with the blogging community who kept throwing them challenges enroute their journey. The link www.indiblogger.in/chennaiexpress had live updates from the 4 bloggers and they created record breaking conversations on twitter & Facebook.

    Talking about the marketing strategy, Akash Chawla, ZEEL, National Channels, Marketing Head, said, “The rise of social media and the increasingly connected customer makes us continuously think out of the box to engage them in newer and interesting ways. By allowing our viewers to experience a film in person before they see it in their own homes, we ensured that &pictures is synonymous with quality and a channel that puts their viewers first. This innovation in the online space has reaped us the benefit across platforms. It has helped us to overcome existing and emerging challenges and set benchmarks which we look to break again in the near future.”

    He adds, “Remarkably, the campaign saw an additional 500 tweets with #chennaiexpressandyou even after the film had premiered. The campaign successfully reached out to a whopping 1.4 unique Twitter users and received over 14 million impressions on Twitter. The impressions via IndiBlogger network was a staggering record 1 Million + and including the impressions generated by four bloggers traveling it comes to a whopping 6.6 million. Owing to the phenomenal response received by this activation, #chennaiexpressandyou was the most talked about topic on Twitter so much that we broke Twitter.”

    &pictures marketing strategy for the premiere of Chennai Express was a unique blend of traditional and digital mediums with innovation and differentiation.

  • Zees mega push in Europe

    Zees mega push in Europe

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has got Europe on its radar. India’s largest private international broadcaster is looking at launching a wellness channel Veria Living in the UK; mulling a Russian launch for it; studying the prospects for an English language factual entertainment brand; and partnering with a European OTT service provider Voddler.

    This was disclosed by company chairman Subhash Chandra to Digital TV Europe. Chandra said the Indian market is ripe for healthcare content programming. “We should be launching in the coming early summer – maybe an April, May, June kind of timeframe,” he told Digital TV Europe.

    Extending its programming to Russia, Zee is also looking at having a majority stake in an existing health and wellness channel there and later pumping in dubbed content from Veria Living.

    Add to this, Zee has inked a deal with Swedish VOD firm Voddler to globally stream its premium content with initial focus on people in India, USA and Indonesia.

    The Voddler deal comes after Zee launched its Ditto TV service last year, which provides live streaming and TV on demand from Zee channels on tablet, mobile and internet platforms. Initially launched in India, Ditto TV now covers UK, Australia and New Zealand as well.

     

    A Voddler release said Zee will brand and market the OTT service globally. With Zee already delivering content to 670 million people across 168 countries globally, the deal is set to take Zee to the online platform while cashing in on the broadcaster’s over 100,000 hours of television and film programming.

     

    “Voddler is committed to bringing great content online with the world’s best cloud-based streaming technology. We’re thrilled to partner with Zee to offer their premium series and movies to fans globally. The Voddler solution scales at all data levels and makes true global online streaming feasible, both from a financial and technical perspective. To continue to build the world’s most efficient cloud-based streaming solution, we couldn’t hope for a more visionary partner than Zee,” said Voddler CEO Marcus Bäcklund in the release.

     

    Starting off with a pilot VOD service, the chosen three markets are the ones that have shown interest in Bollywood. It is due to release early 2014. Voddler’s cloud based service called VoddlerNet is capable of storing large videos at superior quality as well as save on streaming cost.

     

    Chandra said in the release: “Zee turned 20 years this fall. As we now step into our third decade, we are transforming ourselves from a broadcaster to a narrowcaster that will cater to every screen. Voddler’s solution, with its innovative streaming technology and almost limitless cloud solution, enables us to execute on that strategy fast and efficiently.”

     

    A digitaltveurope.com report reveals that at a function last week where Chandra received his doctorate of business administration from the University of East London, the Zee head honcho revealed there are four types of programming he is looking at : South Asian programming; South Asian programming repurposed for given markets, dubbed or subtitled in different languages; local production in the local languages; and global programming, produced in English language and distributed globally, again dubbed in local languages.

  • Subhash Chandra bestowed with Honorary Doctorate degree

    Subhash Chandra bestowed with Honorary Doctorate degree

    MUMBAI:  Zeel (Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd) and Essel Group, chairman Subhash Chandra received the Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from the University of East London (UEL) for his instinctive ability to venture in to new businesses and make them successful.

    Chandra received the Doctorate from the University of East London Chancellor Lord Gulam Noon, himself a leading NRI entrepreneur, at a ceremony for its Royal Dock Business School graduates

    The citation presented at the event noted, “at the age of 17, Subhash Chandra steered his grandfather’s business back to stability and from Essel it became Essel Group of industries.”

    Chandra was privileged to have been considered for the honour. While accepting the award, he thanked the entire senior management team at the Royal Dock Business School. “It is indeed a privilege to be recognised outside one’s country, and in the presence of such highly acclaimed and respected individuals. I thank you all for bestowing this prestigious award that I feel honoured to receive,” he said.

    The recognition that Chandra has got isn’t just good for him but will also add a feather to the crown of Zeel and the entire Essel Group. Launched in 1992, brand Zee has earned a global recognition in its reign over the media and entertainment industry for the past 20 years.

    Now, on 21 November, Chandra will deliver a keynote speech at AsPIRE, the annual event hosted by JP Morgan at Lord’s to promote Asian-Pacific global leadership. He will take the audience through his life journey from humble beginnings in India to becoming a global billionaire. He will reveal his role models and advise on implementing ideas into successful business operations.

  • Zeel Q2-2014 results exceed Q2-2013 results

    Zeel Q2-2014 results exceed Q2-2013 results

    BENGALURU:  The Subhash Chandra led content and broadcast player Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) reported total income from operations of Rs 1,101.28 crore for Q2-2014, up 15.5 per cent as compared to the Rs 953.50 crore for the corresponding quarter of FY-2013  and  13.2 per cent higher than the Rs 973.25 crore for the preceding quarter Q1-2014. PAT for Q2-2014 at Rs 236.31 crore was 26 per cent higher than the Rs 186.7 crore for Q2-2013 and 5.5 per cent more than the Rs 223.9 crore for Q1-2014.

    Let’s take a look at Zeel’s Q2-2014 performance

    Advertising revenue for Q2-2014 at Rs 583.3 crore was 10.5 per cent higher than the Rs 528.1 crore for Q2-2013 and 10 per cent more than the Rs 530.1 crore for Q1-2014. Zeel claims that without sports, its ad revenues would have grown by more than 20 per cent in Q2-2014 as compared to Q2-2013.

    Zeel’s subscription revenue jumped 16 per cent in Q2-2014 to Rs 458.1 crore from Rs 394.95 crore in Q2-2013 and was higher by eight per cent as compared to the Rs 424.1 crore for Q1-2014.

    The company’s total expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 799.9 crore was 7.3 per cent more than the Rs 745.4 crore for Q2-2013, and 15.9 per cent more than the Rs 690.4 crore during Q1-2014. Operating cost which formed a major chunk of expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 504.1 crore was 5.2 per cent more than the Rs 479 crore for Q2-2013, and substantially higher by 22.7 per cent as compared to the Rs 410.8 crore for Q1-2014.

    Selling and other expense for Q2-2014 at Rs 187.5 crore was 24 per cent more than the Rs 169.5 crore for Q2-2014.

    Zeel chairman Subhash Chandra said, “The M&E industry growth is marginally impacted by the overall slowdown of the economy. The television sector, in particular, continues to grow on the back of better subscriber growth linked to increasing digitisation. There was an apprehension about the trends in advertising spends given the overall weakness in the economy, but the television media industry has continued to grow in double digits during the second quarter. Zeel has outpaced the industry advertising revenue growth once again.”

    Zeel managing director and CEO Punit Goenka said, “Sports performance for the quarter has been good, but due to a heavy sports calendar and rupee depreciation, the business is expected to be in losses for some time to come.”

    “Beginning next quarter, we will see a reduction in advertising inventory across the network in line with TRAI regulations. We are in the process of negotiations with advertisers and are confident that this will not have any major impact on revenue monetization. Digitisation will lead to fragmentation of audiences. At Zeel, we believe that this creates a huge opportunity to create new products for specific segments, which will allow us to monetise this opportunity, both from advertising and subscription standpoint. Therefore, we continue to innovate in terms of our format and content,” added Goenka.

  • Zee Cafe not running scared of competition

    Zee Cafe not running scared of competition

    MUMBAI: Zee Cafe is unfazed by the entry of newer players in the English entertainment space. The reason being that one of the pioneers in what was once a niche category follows the simple mantra of gauging viewer appetite coupled with the right marketing to stay ahead in the game.

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) senior vice president and business head – niche channels Anurag Bedi puts it as, “The year has been fantastic for Zee Café as we are the undisputed leaders of FY 2013. Zee Café has been the number one channel in the genre for an average of 28 weeks, beating competition with a share of 21 per cent. Our key strengths have always been a strong line-up of world class content and dynamic marketing campaigns.”

    Zee Café stakes claim of bringing popular international shows to Indian shores at the earliest. In keeping with this tradition, it plans to air Big Bang Theory season 7 and The Vampire Diaries season 5 starting November, very close to their US premiere, as well as House of Cards from early next year. The channel is aware that viewers today want to see fresh new shows as also the latest seasons of their favourite shows without much of a time lag.

    Agrees Maxus India national director – insights Priti Murthy: “Viewers don’t want to wait and usually prefer to watch the latest content online. Therefore, the whole genre has to work towards getting this audience to its kitty.”

    Earlier too, AXN’s business head Sunil Punjabi had told indiatelevision.com that people want to watch shows which are airing currently closer to their airing in the US and in the last one year, the channel has been doing this consistently – adding shows closer to their telecast in the US.

    Spelling out who constitutes the target group (TG) of the new channel, Star India business head Kevin Vaz had said it is the most premium audience in India, comprising the one per cent of top Sec, A+ and between the age group of 20 to 35, indiantelevison.com had reported when Star World HD was launched.

    To counter competition, Bedi believes in identifying what appeals to audiences and cushioning it with effective marketing. “Our competitors have lined up some of the best shows that America produces but no point if they are not marketed to Indian audiences correctly,” he says. Fragmentation is inevitable but “We have a strong relationship with our partners so we do not see competition as a threat and will continue to bring the best of English entertainment to Indian audiences,” he adds.

    Zee Cafe’s strategy is not only to bring in soaps but also movies and live and exclusive telecasts of events from across the globe. “Zee Café caters to a premium and relatively niche audience, hence, there is no fixed format and we will continue to experiment with shows that fit with our TG,” points out Bedi, adding there are plans for an HD channel.

    Speaking of marketing, the channel tied up with Eco roots to adopt trees for each pledge taken by viewers for the Green Turn initiative. Digitally too, it has undertaken several successful initiatives. “Our campaigns like Team Grey, Gossip Girl, Happy hour at 3,Tweet hour with the cast of The Mentalist built an immediate connect with our fans and have received tremendous response from them,” emphasises Bedi. The channel is looking forward to more innovative campaigns for upcoming properties like Big Bang Diwali and House of Cards. “We try to do something different each time to delight the audiences and we will keep on doing that,” says Bedi.

    Murthy however feels Zee Café needs to be more aggressive in its approach to marketing. “The way other channels push their content, I don’t think Zee Café does in the same manner. One must understand, in the genre, there are only a few shows for the whole channel, unlike the Hindi counterparts, which is the sad part. Therefore, aggression is needed to cash in more on the growing audience that wants to watch international shows,” she says.

  • Mipcom 2013: Bigger and Better

    Mipcom 2013: Bigger and Better

    CANNES: If you thought 1,200 participants at Mip Junior was big, think again. 

    We’re talking 13,000 participants from 100 countries; 4,400 buyers with 40 sessions and keynotes; 1,700 exhibitors across five exhibition floors; and approximately 100 Indian companies with their biggest formats. Mipcom 2013 is finally here and how!

    Starting 7 October at the resplendent Palais des Festivals in Cannes, the four-day fest will see some of the biggest content deals being sealed. The Indian contingent will see Star TV with its biggest format Mahabharat and Zee TV with its new offering Buddha among others. Events to watch out for include the key note address by Zeel MD and CEO Puneet Goenka along with Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg.

    So what’s the Mipcom allure really? For one, launching and selling programmes and expanding sales to new platforms. Second, discovering and acquiring the newest and best content in every genre and platform. Third, finding co-production partners and new international channels to enrich offerings and last but not the least, expanding industry knowledge, understanding trends and discovering new business models.

    And while Cannes gears up to welcome a host of participants from around the world, indiantelevision.com preps up to keep you up-to-speed with what’s happening out there…

  • Zeel adds more zeal with Mihir Modi as CFO

    Zeel adds more zeal with Mihir Modi as CFO

    MUMBAI: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) today appointed Mihir Modi as chief finance & strategy officer in place of Hitesh Vakil, who is now elevated as CEO – service excellence.
    Recognising his valuable contribution, the company has elevated Hitesh Vakil as the CEO – service excellence

    Hitesh Vakil has been with Zeel for the last 19 years, and has been an integral part of the company’s journey of over two decades. Recognising his valuable contribution, the company has elevated him as the CEO – service excellence, making him responsible of setting up a state-of-the-art shared service centre which will offer shared services across the group.

    Modi, a chartered accountant and post graduate in management from Indian School of Business (ISB), comes with over 16 years of experience spanning across M&A, strategy, finance and general management in diverse businesses across Europe, Africa and India in varied roles. His last assignment was as CFO-Darling Business (JV between Godrej and Darling Group) at Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. Modi as chief finance & strategy officer will be responsible for finance, strategy and business development.   

    Modi’s appointment is with effect from 10 October, 2013 and he will directly report in to Zeel MD & CEO Punit Goenka.